1. Field of the Invention
This invention broadly concerns a control for a lawn mower which operatively interconnects a bail and a lever control. More particularly, it is concerned with a control assembly readily adaptable to either left or right hand mounting which causes the lever control to disengage when the bail is released.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Manufacturers are constantly looking for ways to make powered rotary lawn mowers safer, easer to use, and more economical. These lawnmowers generally include a lowermost housing supported on spaced wheels with a gasoline powered engine coupled to a rotary mower blade disposed within the housing, with the engine also optionally coupled to the lawnmower wheels for powered propulsion thereof. The lawnmower is guided by a U-shaped handle extending rearwardly from the housing so that the user, when the ground drive is engaged, merely guides the mower in a "walk-behind" mode of operation.
The lawnmowers are provided with controls which operate the throttle, ground drive and blade engagement features. In addition, the mowers may have speed ranges or gearboxes which drive the mower at different ground speeds at the same throttle setting when the ground drive is engaged. The mowers typically have safety bails which are mounted on the handles of the walk-behind lawnmowers. When the bail is grasped, an engine brake or clutching-type mechanism is moved to permit the blade to rotate. The bail is spring-loaded and operate in a "deadman" fashion whereby the blade, and preferably the ground drive engagement, is stopped when the user releases the bail. The bail are positioned for grasping by the user only when in the desired operating position. As a result, a typical cable control device for lawnmowers must be capable of coupling with one end of a control cable and of coupling with the deadman handle. Known prior art devices such as that disclosed in Carlson U.S. Pat. No. 4,428,160, however, have tended to be bulky in order to accommodate all the required mechanical functions. The control lever in Barnard, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,936,160, incorporated herein by reference, presents an improvement, but has some of the cable coupling components extending outside the body, and which includes locking pawls particularly configured for mounting only on the right hand side of the handle. In addition, that control did not provide a capability for handling two control cables as well as cooperation between the ground drive cable and bail.
As these features have been added to the lawnmower, new controls have been added for each feature. The number of control cables and controls for each feature have increased the complexity of the mower, increased the number of parts required, and necessitated that the operate independently operate a number of separate mechanisms. Lawnmower manufacturers must maintain separate parts for each feature, and find mounting locations on the handle for each control. Furthermore, if a control is to be mounted on the left side of the handle, a mirror image of the control needed to be manufactured if it was mounted on the right side of the handle, with corresponding expenses for molds and inventory.